Watercolor Painting for Presidents' Day

Now that I look at it, the shadow looks more like blood. As though I'm suggesting the country is bleeding…

One of my reasons for doing this quick-ish paintings is that I tend to overthink…EVERYTHING!

It’s the reason that I can’t sleep. It’s the reason why I’m still learning how to draw at age 50. It’s the reason I’ve produced so little work. I suffer from analysis paralysis. And perfectionism.

By telling myself that I’m going to design and execute a painted piece for a specific day forces me to toss the perfectionism and lack of complete knowledge away and to just make the damn thing.

To that end, I made the above piece for Presidents' Day.

BUT…it's not what I originally wanted to do. Here's the sketch of what I really wanted to do:

Original idea for watercolor cartoon for Presidents' Day, dated 2/2/20

It covered several of the creation bases that I want to cover: cartoon drawing, single panel idea creation and painting.

This idea was unusual. It came fully formed late on the night of February 2nd and the biggest question was which President I was going to use for "Good." I settled on Jimmy Carter.

But I quickly ran into some obstacles. I've never been good at caricature. It takes a lot of sketches for me to get to a likeness. I didn't spend enough time on the sketches, searching for the best likeness.

I started my sketches of Carter. They began poorly and improved but at the rate it was taking me to find the likeness, I wouldn't get it done in time for the holiday. Not only did I need to draw this whole thing but paint it, too.

First attempts at Jimmy Carter caricatures

Second attempts at Jimmy Carter caricatures

Third attempts at Jimmy Carter caricatures

So I needed a new, much easier idea.

A Google search of "Presidents' Day" provided all of the cliché images. But that's what I needed, something I could do easily that communicated the subject clearly.

I settled on the hat at top.

Just getting paint onto paper in the right place is a challenge. As I said in the painting's caption, the shadow is looking more like blood which wasn't my intention. I'll have to get better with doing shadows. I'm just satisfied that I did something.

There will be more watercolor paintings and a how-to coming soon.

If you like this post and blog, click the blue "Follow" button on the right to become a Follower! And leave a comment below. I respond to all comments.

Thanks for reading!

Watercolor Painting for Valentine's Day

I'm trying to do more work with color and painting. Due to time constraints, I have to ease into it. I thought the best way to do that is to make paintings for the holidays and special occasions throughout the year. I missed New Year's Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day but I was ready for Valentine's Day! 

Over the years, I've purchased EVERY type of water-soluble paint in existence… 


So many paints!

…watercolor tubes, watercolor pans, watercolor pencils, watercolor liquids, gouache, acrylics and poster colors. Phew! 


And I have used almost NONE of them. 😬 Oopsie! 

But that's ALL changing in 2020! I've got my jars and brushes ready to start painting! I'm starting with watercolor and will eventually tackle the other media. I'm especially curious about the poster colors since that's the paint used in those gorgeous anime background painting.

I had several of these large watercolor pads originally to paint the backgrounds for my Universe of Trouble project:

Watercolor pad

These practice paintings were done on the paper above:

Practice painting

Then I used these blank, watercolor paper greeting cards to do the final (these were on backorder so I guess they're popular):

I had tried cutting and folding the pad paper to make cards but the fold was never clean. So it made sense to get paper that was already made to be folding cards.

This card's design was modest due to, again, time but it's also a first start. I'm happy with the results and so was my valentine!❤️

The next post will be a watercolor painting for Presidents Day. 

If you like this post and blog, click the blue "Follow" button on the right to become a Follower! And leave a comment below. I respond to all comments.

Thanks for reading!

Gamal Hennessy—The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing Pt. 1

In October, 2019, I attended a Comic Artist Workshop meetup featuring Gamal Hennessy.

From his Creative Contract Consulting website: "I am an experienced entertainment transactions attorney with an expertise in comic book publishing and comic IP licensing. During my career, I’ve represented major corporate clients including AfterShock, Amazon, Mad Cave Studios, and Marvel, as well as independent entertainment professionals and independent publishers."

Hennessy is currently working on a book titled "The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing" and this meetup touched on many of the topics he will detail in his book.

Here's the first part of what I learned from his talk:

• The system for publishing comic books is pre-production, production and post-production. These steps are not necessarily linear, they often overlap.
• Independent comic book publishing is not the same as freelance or creator-owned 
• Ask yourself, "Why do you want to publish comics?"
• Ask, "What's the best media for my story?"
• Comics are more viral than other forms of media; can branch out into other media
• Answering these will help overcome challenges
• Ask, "What is my ultimate success and where do I want to go with it?"
• "Do I have time?" It's a lifestyle choice.
• "What is my comic about?
• Comics ideas fall under these 3 areas: original, licensed (legal right given to the creator) and public domain
• Who owns the idea?
• collaborators
• employers
• third parties
• Make sure any idea (intellectual property) you have is wholly yours
• Only make the idea that you love, you will be spending a lot of time on it. Need a connection for the process.
• "How will I be able to pay for publishing?"
• Investment comes before revenue
• Investment is a risk
• Comics are a luxury investment
• Don't use money that don't have
• Costs:
• initial costs
• operating
• creative
• marketing
• printing
• distribution
• advertising
• Investors only care about the value of the comic
• Crowdfunding not part of the indie process at this stage since only have a copyright but no product
• "How will I protect my idea and investment? What professionals are needed?
• Accountant to protect investment
• Editor to protect idea
• Lawyer to protect you
• Need to form a legal entity?
• liability protection
• tax advantages
• "Who is going to publish the comic?"
• In addition to creative roles, the following need to be addressed—
• distribution
• legal
• accounting
• advertising
• marketing
• printing
• publishing
• sales
• Always make a contract with everyone who works on the project
• collaboration agreement (collaborators own in part the product) or work for hire
• "Who is going to read my comic?"
• 5-20% of time and effort should be spent connecting with target market.
• Must market!
• Understand who is and isn't target market
• not for everyone, all comic readers or all superhero comic book readers
• Define ideal reader
• use demographics and psychographics
• determine the genre
• Determine generation appealing to
• iGen: born 1996-mid 2000's
• Millenials: 1981-1996
• GenX: 1965-1980
• Boomers: 1946-1964
• Silent: 1928-1945
• Determine the competition
• ideal reader comparison
• SWOT analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
• How to expand target market?
• Barriers to entry
• other media competition
• relative price
• isolated distribution
• perception stigmas
• established patterns
• the story has to be strong enough to surmount these challenges
• How to build a relationship with my target market? 
• give them what they want
• use hooks to create true fans
• the connection between the story and what people want
• Off-line marketing is brand marketing
• comic shops 
• conventions
• potential market locations
• word of mouth
• go where the market is

The rest of Hennessy's talk will be in a second post.

If you like this post and blog, click the blue "Follow" button on the right to become a Follower! And leave a comment below. I respond to all comments.

Thanks for reading!

Designing a Logo–Step 8: Breakdown…Breakthrough

The first step of designing a logo was research.

The second step was word associations to brainstorm ideas.

The third step was thumbnail sketches.

The fourth step was designs in black and white.

The fifth step was designs in black and white feedback and revisions.

The sixth step was designs in black and white feedback and revisions part 2.

The seventh step was a disagreement in direction.

The good news is that my response to the client's desire to go in a different and potentially disastrous direction was taken extremely well.

I knew things were going to be OK when I saw that the subject of the response email was "There is no one like you!!!!!"

Phew, this may turn out all right!

The client agreed with me that the tagline should not be the logo. But what really helped the project move forward is that the client came up with a solution for combining the preferred labyrinth logo idea with the addition of the tagline. They provided helpful and specific sketches of what they were looking for. It was also decided that a conference call with all parties would help to ensure that we were all of the same mindset.

This set of revisions was the first to take longer than I expected. It was decided that to make the labyrinth look less like a target by replacing the clean edges with rougher ones. This made sense since the church itself has a labyrinth on its property and the bumpy edges feel more organic. To further distinguish the logo from Target's, a version of the logo with individual bricks was made.

For this version, we talked color for the first time! The client wanted some kind of green, in a variety of shades. And although I presented the tagline with my personal preference of typeface, I also included a variety of alternative options.

After combining all of that input from the client, I presented these revised designs:

In the next installment, we get closer to settling on a final design.

If you like this post and blog, click the blue "Follow" button on the right to become a Follower! And leave a comment below. I respond to all comments.

Thanks for reading!

Moebius's "Arzach" Animated—Page 2, Panel 2

Once I got to this panel, many of my workflow and After Effects questions had been answered. For example, I figured out that my image files from Photoshop weren't importing into After Effects because they were saved as CMYK instead of RGB. DUH! (Man, I wasted a LOT of time figuring that one out!)

Another After Effects issue for which I never found an explanation was the seemingly random importing of my layered Photoshop files as a sequence whose duration couldn't be adjusted. The workaround I found for this was to save each image as a .png file instead of a .psd. I still don't know what I was doing wrong but I'm just glad I found a way around it. Nothing irritates me more than being slowed down by a technical issue.

This panel was easy-ish since it was small. It didn't take much to separate Arzach from the background and to animate his cape and face. The biggest challenge was recreating the line work in the background. That's the biggest challenge for this entire project.

Arzach has such a great expression here that after moving on from this panel I returned to it to add some movement to his face. It gave him some personality:

Basically, up to this point, I cruised.

But now it was time to continue move down the page to continue animating the page's panels. 

Decisions needed to be made. How will the camera pan down? Will I see only the next row of panels or show the entire page? Will the movement in the completed panels continue moving or remain still?

These questions will be answered in the next Moebius Fan Animation posts.

If you like this post and blog, click the blue "Follow" button on the right to become a Follower! And leave a comment below. I respond to all comments.

Thanks for reading!

Tips on Drawing Fundamentals and Learning Anatomy from Stan Prokopenko

Stan Prokopenko's suggested flowchart of learning to draw.

As you know, I am a HUGE fan and student of Stan Prokopenko's drawing instruction. I started with his free instruction that inspired me to purchase his Figure Fundamentals course. When he announced an anatomy course, I snatched that one up, too. For me, his way of teaching has overwhelmingly been the most effective.

For decades, I struggled with improving my drawing because I knew I was supposed to be drawing a lot, but I didn't know what to draw a lot of. This question led to paralysis which led to lack of drawing which led to lack of developing drawing skills.

The internet helped greatly with my what-to-draw paralysis. First, I discovered (initially for free) the Famous Artists Courses instruction. It's because of those courses that I finally learned to see everything as a three-dimensional form. (As of this writing, the Famous Artists School is in the process of migrating their website and will return in 360 days.)

Second, I eventually stumbled upon Proko when I Googled "how to draw the head from any angle." His clear and concise instruction came up and I've been a student of his ever since.

If you want to draw better but are overwhelmed, like I was, about what to study, Proko addresses these issues in the videos "What are the Fundamentals? and "How to Learn Anatomy". He and fellow draftsman, Marshall Vandruff (whose $12 perspective course is one of the best drawing instruction bargains you'll find) developed a downloadable courses/topics of study flowchart that also is helpful.

Here are the top points I got from the "How to Learn Anatomy" video:

1. Know gesture and structure before studying anatomy. [For my purposes, I added figure proportions which I felt I needed as well]
2. Common anatomy mistakes:
• thinking about contours instead of in 3D
• stiff drawings (lacking gesture)
• drawing random bumps instead of knowing what those bumps are and represent
• not remembering origins and insertions of muscles correctly. But you can take liberties with inaccurate anatomy if it looks GOOD
• shading too soon. Don't shade until know how to draw cross-contours
3. Mannequinization of the figure goes on top fo the rhythms
4. Likes learning anatomy outside-in
• even learning gesture and structure is outside to inside. Structure and gesture involve simplifying outside forms. 
• then, learn inside out with bones, then muscles
5. Vandruff: two reasons to put cross contours around bones—
• bones are long you can forget its original shape. The cross contours remind you of the bones shape.
• bones change shape based on their position so the "rubber bands" of cross contours help show the shapes
6. Stay away from Bridgman until know anatomy because his teachings and diagrams need to be interpreted

If you like this post and blog, click the blue "Follow" button on the right to become a Follower! And leave a comment below. I respond to all comments.

Thanks for reading!

Taurus February Crystal Reading

The following descriptions of crystals are from Judy Hall, trained healer and counsellor. Judy has been psychic all her life and has a wide experience of many systems of divination and natural healing methods.

I was born under the sign of Taurus. So if you were, too, here's our crystal reading for February:

Eye of the Storm (Organs/systems—adrenals, kidneys, etheric DNA coding, immune system. Applications—stress, blood pressure, chemo support, cellular healing). A safe haven for your soul, a calm center no matter what upheavals may occur.

Golden Healer (Organs/systems—all, etheric blueprint. Applications—multipurpose master healer for all systems). Imbued with powerful, transformative healing energies.

Purpurite (Organs/systems—cellular memory, cardio-thoracic and circulatory systems. Applications—stamina, bruises, bleeding, pustules, blood purification, regulating the pulse). Grounds high-frequency energy harmonizing the physical body to the new vibration.

These crystals were pulled by WaterBaby Tarot. Her reading is that we Taureans are working through some stuff. We're silent, sad, bummed, disappointed about something. Issues with leadership. It's not negative or aggressive energy, just some wavering in skills or confidence as a leader. Advanced, evolved energy.

Go here for more of WaterBaby Tarot's earth signs reading for February.

Do I know what any of this means? Nope! I'm just going to take it as a sign to keep on working!

If you like this post and blog, click the blue "Follow" button on the right to become a Follower! And leave a comment below. I respond to all comments.

Thanks for reading!

Don't Break the (Creative) Chain–January 2020

I learned about this from Jerry Seinfeld.

He had a similar chart for the goal of writing one joke per day.

I've been using these charts for several years for several projects. It's an easy, daily reminder of whether or not I've made the effort to draw. I'll admit, I'm sometimes too generous with my green checkmarks—if I draw for 5 minutes, I count it as a draw day!

It's also a clear way to evaluate and figure out why there are red X marks. I was consistent the first 13 days of the year. Then I was diagnosed with a neurological disorder, focal dystonia of the foot, that's been hindering me since August, 2018. Notice how I used my depression about my condition to not draw.

Not. Good.

Things improved slightly the next week but I have yet to get back into a consistent practice.

Now I have something to aim for in February!

If you like this post and blog, click the blue "Follow" button on the right to become a Follower! And leave a comment below. I respond to all comments.

Thanks for reading!

Designing a Logo–Step 7: The Project Takes a Questionable Turn

The first step of designing a logo was research.

The second step was word associations to brainstorm ideas.

The third step was thumbnail sketches.

The fourth step was designs in black and white.

The fifth step was designs in black and white feedback and revisions.

The sixth step was designs in black and white feedback and revisions part 2.

At this point I was pleased with my work, the way it was being received and the overall relationship with the client. 

But then…the client responded to the second revisions…and things took a turn.

The client showed the designs to other people who expressed reservations. First concern: since many of their congregants work for the Target company, they felt that the labyrinthine logo looked too much like a target.

Hmm…same shape and feel but sufficiently different, yes?

Second concern: the client was put in the uncomfortable position of having to explain the significance of the two logo designs. The client was questioned as to what the designs had to do with the concept of “Living the Love of Christ."

They therefore concluded that they needed to "change direction" (oh. crap.) and make the words “Living the Love of Christ" the basis of the logo.

The client thoughtfully explained what they had in mind for the new direction and included visual references.

Needless to say, I wasn't happy…

…because what they were asking went against everything I had learned and believed about logo design. They were confusing the purpose of a logo with that of a tagline.

I wisely took two days to respond and collect my thoughts. I came up with the most professional yet direct phrasing I could think of. My response was:

My concern is that the purpose of the logo is being misunderstood. A logo is meant to be a simple suggestion or indication that identifies. Its function is not, however, to describe or explain…

Therefore I will not be able to design a new logo based on the direction you want to go. If, however, you and your team see further ways for the current ideas to be adjusted, I can accommodate those changes. Of course I will understand if you decide to proceed with another designer.

Thanks for the opportunity to work with you, it’s been fun!

It's important to note that I was completely willing to walk away from this paying freelance opportunity, an opportunity I got from a former high school classmate!

But I saw that going in the direction they wanted would turn into a hellscape for me trying to accommodate what I felt to be a misguided vision. Nothing good would come out of this for me is I continued.

In the next installment, I'll explain how the client received my response and how we proceeded.

If you like this post and blog, click the blue "Follow" button on the right to become a Follower! And leave a comment below. I respond to all comments.

Thanks for reading!

Moebius's "Arzach" Animated—Page 2, Panel 1

Original Moebius panel from "Arzach."

This first piece of animation went surprisingly quick and easy. Removing Arzach and the pterodactyl from the background and filling in the hole they left required minimal Photoshop work as did creating the moving cloudy sky background.

The next step was a little more complicated.

First, there was a LOT more retouching. Part of the appeal of Moebius's work are the wonderful lines and dots he uses to indicate texture. Recreating those lines and dots was a lesson in patience…and a lot of thinking. Because Moebius always placed texture marks with a purpose and consistency. In the gaps, I had to think about what marks were being used, where they should be and why. A useful exercise.

Second, as my hand turned the page of the book, the panels on the next pages were revealed:

I wanted, however, to start with a blank page and have the effect of the panel frames and animation appearing on the page. So I needed to mask all of the drawings on the next two pages.

It took some Googling to find out how to mask a moving object but after some searching I found the right tutorial and achieved the effect I imagined:

With that done, I could reveal the art on the page as I imagined:


If you like this post and blog, click the blue "Follow" button on the right to become a Follower! And leave a comment below. I respond to all comments.

Thanks for reading!

It's FINALLY Making Sense!

My first two artistic anatomy study guides. Notice the wear on them. I asked my parents to get me "Gray's Anatomy" when I was in high school.

When I was 25-years-old, I rented my first apartment in Brooklyn, NY. It was in Park Slope, roach-infested, had a drug dealer living on the first floor (who liked to vacuum the hall) and was almost broken into one day while I was at work (thank goodness I spent the several-hundreds-of-bucks to install a gate on the fire escape window. Otherwise my few belongings would've been stolen and it would've been my fault for not properly locking the window.)

I'd wake up early every morning (which was scary because…roaches), sit at the counter with "Gray's Anatomy" and the 1957 edition of Fritz Schider's "An Atlas of Anatomy for Artists," trying to learn artistic anatomy so I could pursue my dream of being an animator.

I tried.

And tried.

But trying to remember the Latin names of the muscles and their origins and insertions was impossible.

Now it's almost 26 years later, and finally—FINALLY!—I'm beginning to understand human anatomy.

Why am I just now beginning to understand anatomy? Better resources and instruction.

For years I took classes at the Arts Students League and studied the  books above but it just never came together for me. When I submitted my anatomy class drawings to MTV's "Daria" for an animation job, I got a note back saying I should…learn anatomy! (Yeah, that one was a soul-crusher especially since there was barely any animation in "Daria.")

But once I started learning from online instructors—particularly Stan Prokopenko but also Michael Mentler and Ron Lemen—combined with better books—particularly "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist" by Stephen Rogers Peck plus Robert Beverly Hale and Thomas Coyle's "Albinus on Anatomy"—things began to click.

Stan Prokopenko (proko.com)

Ron Lemen

Michael Mentler (tsofa.com)

Peck's book has excellent drawings that give a sense of the dimensionality of the bones and muscles; the Albinus book presents the muscles individually to better understand their origins and insertions.

These two books have been essential to me learning artistic anatomy.

These books, especially that on the right, have tremendous insights into how the masters approached drawing the human figure.

An additional important resource has been the internet and 3D images. One of the great things about Proko's anatomy course is that he provides an online, 3D image of the bones and muscles. Being able to see the bones and muscles from any angle allowed me to understand the dimensionality of these things. And understanding that dimensionality helped me draw that object better.

I've also discovered that no one instructor has all of the answers and that combining teachings gives you a more complete understanding of what you're studying. So right now I'm in the process of learning human proportions by combining the teachings of Michael Mentler (whose system of measurement is the same as Robert Beverly Hale's) and Ron Lemen. I like both of their methods; they have similarities and overlap which reinforces my learning.

I'm going to share with you the best of their methods once I'm done learning it myself. I'm confident that if you've had problems understanding human proportions, the method I share with you will be of use. I'm also looking forward to applying the Mentler/Lemen figure proportions to Andrew Loomis's teachings which will make it easier to draw a figure at extreme angles.

From Andrew Loomis's "Figure Drawing for all It's Worth"—I can't wait to deconstruct this!

And THIS!

If you like this post and blog, click the blue "Follow" button on the right to become a Follower! And leave a comment below. I respond to all comments.

Thanks for reading!